I am a Tombstone Tourist: someone who loves to wander cemeteries. I find it akin to visiting a museum: an opportunity to enjoy rarely seen sculpture, intricate carvings, and amazing architecture, all in a tranquil outdoor setting. This blog is about cemetery culture, art, history, issues of death, and genealogy - subjects of current relevance. I usually find something that intrigues me and makes me want to dig deeper. Care to join me? Read on...

Friday, April 12, 2013

Louis Sullivan - America's Modern Architect

American Skyscrapers

Louis Sullivan

Known as the “Father of the Skyscraper”, Louis Sullivan was one of the most influential architects in
modern history. His designs were considered some of the best in American
architecture.

Boston in the 1870's

Boston's Horticultural Hall

Louis
Henry Sullivan was born on September 3, 1856 to Patrick and Andrienne (List)
Sullivan in Boston.He was raised
on his grandparent’s farm in South Reading, Massachusetts - but Louis had an
affinity for the city.As a young
teen, Sullivan was fascinated with buildings, how they were constructed, what
materials were used, and why.

MIT Logo

Frank Furness

In
1871, Sullivan entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the age
of 16. He studied there for one year before moving to Philadelphia and landing
a one-year job with architect Frank Furness.

Great Chicago Fire

Sullivan
moved to Chicago in 1873 and became part of the design work force
reconstructing the damaged city after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Dankmar Adler

In
1880, architect Dankmar Adler hired Sullivan as a draftsman and designer.Three years later Adler made him a
partner in the firm. Adler
and Sullivan began their partnership designing theatres.

Adler
was the partner who sought out and secured the large commissions; Sullivan was
the architect who could design and create the visual unity necessary in tall
buildings.

Auditorium Building

Auditorium Plans

But
the commission that made their company famous was the Auditorium Building, built
from 1886 to 1890.Not only did it
house a 4,200 seat theatre, but also a hotel, and offices located in the
17-story tower.The building was
so amazing, it helped the city of Chicago land the Columbian Exposition –
the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893.

Wainwright Building

Carson Pirie Scott Department Store

Adler
and Sullivan went on to design the Wainwright Building in St Louis, the Chicago
Stock Exchange Building, the Guaranty Building, now known as the Prudential
Building in Buffalo, New York, and the Carson Pirie Scott Department Store on
State Street in Chicago – all within a period of five years.

Sullivan
is known for coining the phrase “form follows function.” This means that the form (shape) of the building
should be based on what the intended function (purpose) is. Sullivan first used
the phrase in 1896 in his article for Lippincott’s Magazine entitled “The
Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” It became the mantra of 20th
Century modern architecture and industrial design.

Steel Framework

Sullivan
was the first architect to use steel frames in his skyscrapers. His American
style of architecture simplified the look of modern buildings and created new
techniques to lead the eye, and the population, upward. Sullivan believed that the use of steel in
building construction was safe and economical. And with the continued growth of
cities, vertical was the only way to expand buildings.
The newly evolved high-speed elevators made such an idea a possibility.

Base Area

Sullivan
understood the three parts that were fundamental to classical design - base, shaft, and
capital.His steel skyscrapers
were divided into these three parts starting with a plain base that had plenty of large
windows for the ground level shops.Banks, stores, and other businesses that catered to foot traffic would
occupy these street-level stores.

Vertical Shaft Area

The
second design area (shaft) contained the offices. It was emphasized by vertical bands
of masonry going up the corners of the building to emphasize its height. These
tiers of offices could be built one upon another, with the individual offices
being, as Sullivan described, "similar to a cell in a honeycomb."

Capital Area - Attic

The final area was at the roofline where
round windows were located.This
attic area was filled with the mechanics, pipes, and cables that came up
through the building from the basement.

Details on Carson Store

Art Nouveau Details

While
he felt that the practical construction of a building should be more important
than the design elements, Sullivan did not object to ornamentation on
buildings.He was known to place
Art Nouveau and Celtic Revival details fashioned from iron, stone, and terra
cotta on his buildings.The Art
Nouveau vines located at the ground-floor level of building entrances became
his signature mark.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright Design

Frank
Lloyd Wright was Sullivan’s chief draftsman for six years and was intensely
influenced by him.It was Wright
who took the phrase “form follows function” and adopted it as his architectural
motto.Wright used it as the backbone
for his famous Prairie School architecture of the early 1900’s.

The Panic of 1893

In 1894, Alder
and Sullivan dissolved their partnership.After the Panic of 1893 when investors made a run on the gold in
the U.S. Treasury, expansion and economic growth slowed down. Over
600 banks closed and 1,500 businesses failed during that time.The U.S. economy would take four years to recover.

Van Allen Building

Peoples Savings and Loan

Sullivan
received a few more large commissions, but without Adler seeking the business,
the demand for Sullivan's designs began to disappear.Slowly, he went into an emotional and physical
decline.Never again would
Sullivan be commissioned to design a skyscraper.Instead, he worked off and on, designing minor building in
small Midwestern towns, and writing books.

On
April 14, 1924, Louis Sullivan died alone and broke in a Chicago hotel
room.When former student, Frank
Lloyd Wright heard this, he paid for Sullivan’s funeral.Sullivan was buried at
Graceland Cemetery in Chicago; near the modern mausoleums he had designed for
Chicago’s wealthy families.A
small stone was placed at Sullivan’s grave, and later, a monument was erected
nearby.

Chicago Stock Exchange

Louis Sullivan

Sullivan’s architectural goal was to create, in his
words, “… architecture that will soon become a fine art in the true, the best
sense of the word, an art that will live because it will
be of the people, for the people, and by the people.”

About Me

I
love wine and will take any chance to sip, savor and share it! Hence, Joy’s JOY
of Wine http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com,
a weekly blog about all things wine. I've been in the industry for 15
years as a winery owner, marketing director, speaker, writer, wine judge, and
100% vino girl!

I'm
also a professional freelance magazine and book writer uncorking articles about
wine, food, history, travel, cemetery history and culture. My interest in
cemetery culture led to another great, or maybe I should say
"grave" gig, my weekly blog: A Grave Interest http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com where I get to travel around the country and speak about cemetery topics for genealogy, history and
education conferences.

I suppose you could say that wine is my
passion, and cemeteries are my diversion ... into another world.

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